Tribeca Immersive 2019: A VR Arcade In Review

With a steady stream of visitors making up the packed queue hours prior to opening and reports of tickets for every time-slot being sold out each of the nine days of Tribeca Immersive, the festival easily hit a high mark for attention on mixed reality and similar content.

Now a few years into curating immersive experiences, including this year’s Cinema360 theater and the spacey Virtual Arcade, Tribeca Film Festival has firmly planted its flag as an advocate for digital design and emerging tech by acknowledging the art of creators working at the intersection of augmented, virtual and mixed-reality overall.

Jan Kounen’s Ayahuasca // Image Credit: Darragh Dandurand

With social impact in mind, Senior Programmer for Film and Immersive at Tribeca Film Festival, Loren Hammonds, and his team clearly consider the ripple effect of their selections. The exhibition stands alone in many ways as a cultural touchpoint on trending issues, civil rights, and experimental storytelling via new media.

This year it featured a considerably large body of work by female directors, such as Tribeca-award-winning Celine Tricart of The Key, international artists—like the cast and crew of Future Dreaming—unconventional adventures, as depicted in Ayahuasca by Jan Kounen, and timely subjects; akin to the lesbians in Another Dream struggling to seek asylum from Northern Africa.

Many festivals are working globally to incorporate mixed reality works into their curation, but Tribeca is often regarded by creators as a gold standard thanks to the efforts put behind the production of the VR arcade. From mandatory lighting and set design throughout the space, to AR pieces like Into The Light built specifically for Tribeca Immersive, this selection brightly colored a playful, pushy and provocative sense as to what mixed reality entertainment will be.

Jessica Brillhart’s Into The Light // Image Credit: Darragh Dandurand

That being said, it was difficult for ticket-holders to experience the full range of pieces on the show floor as the code has yet to be perfectly cracked regarding the best way to facilitate screenings and demos.

The issue is not unique to Tribeca, as many other festivals, conventions and conferences featuring virtual and augmented reality are working diligently to find solutions to better promote a smooth sign-up and registration process for viewing immersive content. As an industry, we have yet to fully resolve how best to share mixed-reality art at a large, public scale.

Yours truly checking out Game of Thrones The Dead Must Die for the Magic Leap One // Image Credit: Darragh Dandurand

Overall, Tribeca Immersive serves as a temporary and loving home to touring works and debuts alike. From complicated, grand installations that filled corners of the wing, to the work of smaller groups who patiently built out booths lining the aisle of entrances, there seemed to have been a loose theme of community celebration; an air of wonderment flowed freely.

About the Scout

Darragh Dandurand

Darragh Dandurand is a multi-disciplinary creative whose award-winning works have reached international audiences by way of photography, writing, journalism and filmmaking. She is known for artistic and academic efforts in story development, creative direction and set design (most recent installations were part of the 'Where Thoughts Go: Prologue' debut festival tour, including a permanent exhibit in NYC’s VR World). Darragh is the former Chief Marketing and Operations Officer of Thought Co., producers of 'Where Thoughts Go: Prologue.' She has been advocating for women’s and LGBT+ rights for over a decade and currently sits on her fourth executive board at NYC Pride. She is also a member of Magic Leap’s #LeapSquad.